Corporate Skills

Assignment Case Study

By:
Abdur Rehman Qureshi
BBA 8G
02-111162-005
 Natalie the Retail Manager
Q1. Critique the process Natalie went through in her selection of Enigma as an
employer. Do you think the selection of Enigma was right for her? What could she have
done differently in her job search?

Ans. Natalie really did not have a process. She knew what type of job she wanted but lacked
vetting the companies she was interested in. Enigma was one of the several she interviewed
for. At the time it seemed like the right choice based off of what the interviewer said, but
turns out to be not the right choice at all. Highly competitive, win at all costs, the company
culture, and values do not match up with her beliefs. She did not ask the interviewer the right
questions, look up articles about the company, looked at public records, try to determine
turnover ratio for jobs there, what type of HR strategy they had in place, the financials, and
even talk to current employees and watch how they interact with each other.

She should have done some basic research into the company not only financially but also
how they handle customers and their employees. Another thing to do is to talk to family and
friends and see what they think about the company. Have a sheet of questions you would like
answered by the company and interviewer as well. Then have a contingency plan if it doesn’t
work out. Come up with a plan and process to look for work and a job and not just
interviewing with several companies that might be okay, but several companies that you truly
want to work for.

A good plan of action could have been this:

Step 1: Find the companies she is interested in.

Step 2: Do research on the company, whether financials, employee reviews, and ask
employees what they think and feel about Enigma.

Step 3: Form multiple questions for the interviewer to answer to better give an understanding
how the culture is, their beliefs, morals, attitudes, and overall feeling of the company.

Step 4: Do the normal interview process and steps. It is not the best place for her. She is
having physical health issues trying to work for Enigma. It appeared to be a loyal soldier
strategy, but itis actually a bargain laborer strategy. Instead of being employee centric, it is
more of a survival of the fittest type of culture. So the corporate culture is very hostile and so
are the employees to a degree. With the corporate culture the way it is, it does not reflect the
same morals, values, and beliefs that Natalie has.

Q2. Do you think Enigma was right in the approaches it used to recruit Natalie? Should
an employer have a moral obligation to always use realistic recruitment?

Ans. I think the approaches used were misleading. They had people to interview with and had
good candidates like Natalie. However, they should have been more upfront about what the
company culture, values, and beliefs were. That it was more competitive, not much for
building relationships and not as team oriented as it was described. It appears that they were
dishonest about saying how it was team oriented instead of what it was. Also how the training
program pitted each employee against each other instead of team building and building on
relationships. The employer does have a moral obligation to use realistic recruitment. The
employee should know everything they should and have to know to do well and the qualities
the employer is looking for. If it is employee centric, very competitive, team oriented, and so
forth. The employee should know the strategies used and so forth that the company is using
and going for in the short and long run.

Q3. Do you believe that the “survival of the fittest” approach that Enigma used in
developing its managers was an appropriate strategy? Do you think Natalie should have
been more forceful in trying to correct managerial and cultural wrongs that she
observed?

Ans. I think Natalie should have been more proactive on finding new work. She could
possibly have been in a management position by now if she had switched to a company with
a better corporate culture. With switching to a better corporation she would probably avoided
the health issues, stress, and the overall corporate culture of Enigma. Looking at the chart of
whether and employee should quit or not from in class on retention. She should have been at
the 4th level looking for other work. She was not and stuck it out and now has a predicament
to handle.

Q4. Do you agree with Natalie’s decision to “stick it out for a while longer” with Enigma
after she had been on the job for a year? What are the key factors that you consider in
making your choices?

Ans. Yes, I do agree with Natalie’s decision to “stick it out for a while longer” with Enigma.
Before making any haste decision, everyone should analyze the threats and opportunities
prevailing in a job in the organization. One year’s stress or success can never signal true
situation in a position for a job. One requires some time space to explore his potentially and
to set a solid target. Only because of this, Natalie choose to stay in Enigma for a while longer
in spite of her suffering from severe migraines, heartburn problems and physician’s advice to
find less stressful job. Now this can be inferred that Natalie wanted to take time and to see if
she can overturn the situation prevailing in the organization, say-stress political gains,
employees hostility and demands for individual process.

Q5. If you were in Natalie’s shoes after 5 years with Enigma, what career and life
choices would you prepared to make? What are the key factors that you would consider
in making your choices?

Ans. It is harder to read what Natalie will do. There are only two choices for her right now.
She either takes the advancement or not. If she does not then she loses out at exploring a new
area with many opportunities, greater pay, and challenging work. If she does then she upsets
her fiancé, away from family, might have to think about childcare outside of the family, and
so forth. I would predict that with the influences of her family, his family, him, the option of
having family help with the possible child in the future, she will stay and consider trying to
open up her own business in the future. Try to collect as much capital as possible to try it, but
for now stay where she is at and maybe try for a local level advancement if that’s possible.

The key factors to include are, Enigma, family, compensation, childcare, location of next job,
and her fiancé. With all of these to consider, she should almost do a cost benefit analysis and
see if she should go or not. Maybe establish weights for each one and see if she should move
and accept the job or not.
Q6. If you were to write a continuation to this case, what would you predict for Natalie
for the future, say, 10 or 15 years after her college graduation? Would it be a happy or
an unhappy future?

Ans. In these years Natalie has followed a flexible path. She learned to implement changes
and improvement in her department in quite fashion. 10 or 15 years down the line she should
look to exploring more opportunities outside the company. Her dreams of becoming an
entrepreneur would be fulfilled as she always wanted to start her own business. With that in
mind she needs to look at all the stress and headaches that comes up with moving forward.
With trying for more opportunities there will be additional demand for performance level
when a more higher position is included. The biggest concern for her will be her family
problems. She has to make sure that husband is reluctant to move to Seattle. Currently the
opportunities are outweighing the threats as she has nice salary increase, bonus and major
promotion. So if she is looking for to switch to another job this cannot guarantee more
favorable environment than the previous one.